Index of Dover Magic Books

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atkinsod
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Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby atkinsod » May 2nd, 2015, 12:46 pm

I've posted at my website an index of all of the Dover Publications, Ltd., books on magic that have been published over the years. I recently added thumbnails of the book covers, so the page is a bit nicer to read now. In all, they published almost 100 magic and related arts books.

As a kid growing up, I didn't have access to many magic shops (and this was pre-Internet days), so the local bookstore and the library were my main avenues for finding magic. As soon as I'd enter a bookstore, I head over to the games section, where I was always sure to find a few Dover books on magic.

If you are aware of any Dover books that I'm missing, I'd be pleased to add them.

http://magicref.tripod.com/magref/doverbooksonmagic.htm

Enjoy!

Doug Atkinson

Bill Mullins
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Bill Mullins » May 2nd, 2015, 1:24 pm

Nicely done.

Will Jung
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Will Jung » May 2nd, 2015, 3:48 pm

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us.

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Chas Nigh
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Chas Nigh » May 2nd, 2015, 5:32 pm

Hofzinser is the gem. Wonder why they chose to stop the run.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 2nd, 2015, 6:24 pm

Because you can probably download the Sharpe translation (in the public domain outside of the UK, I believe) for nothing.
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lybrary
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby lybrary » May 2nd, 2015, 10:24 pm

Richard, are you sure about this? Sharpe died in 1992. Per UK copyright act from 1911 copyright term is 50 years after death. This was extended to 70 years after death in 1996. Seems to me that anything written by Sharpe is still copyrighted.
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Evan Shuster » May 2nd, 2015, 10:41 pm

Nice job! Great index!

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Richard Hatch » May 4th, 2015, 12:38 am

Dover reprinted the Fulves edition of Sharpe's Hofzinser translation without Sharpe's permission. He complained and they sent him a check, but did not reprint after that, presumably to avoid further such problems.

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Bill Mullins » May 4th, 2015, 12:43 am

The Hofzinser book carries a premium on the collector's market (maybe $40 or so??).

Do any of the other Dover magic books have a significant collector value?

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Richard Hatch » May 4th, 2015, 12:57 am

Great list! The one title that I didn't see on it is their 2010 publication 60 Great Magic Posters, book plus DVD, edited by Carol Belanger Grafton. $16.95, ISBN-13: 978-0-486-99103-0, ISBN-10: 0-486-99103-2. 64 pages. 11x8.25 format, plus DVD with a slideshow of the images, plus a link to additional images. I thought this was a great book at a great price, but unfortunately Dover had taken some (all?) of the images from the big Taschen book and one of the image owners could prove it thanks to the autograph of Jane Thurston on one of the Thurston posters (image 58). I don't know if money changed hands over that, but the book was not reprinted (and may have been pulled from production). Copies found in a quick internet search are asking over $500 (more than $1,000 in one case)! Wish I'd held onto more than my personal copy!

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby atkinsod » May 4th, 2015, 10:41 am

Richard,

Thanks for that bit of knowledge, I was not aware of the Dover book of posters. I will be adding that book to the list!

I know that many were also upset with Dover over their publishing of Bobo's Coin Magic. My limited understanding is that Dover took advantage of a slip-up in copyright renewal, and were able to re-print the original edition of Coin Magic, but not the New Modern Coin Magic, with the added chapter.

While you can easily find used copies of most of the out-of-print Dover books, two that I rarely see are:

Nevil Maskelyne: Maskelyne on the Performance of Magic (Part One of Maskelyne and Devant's Our Magic)
Robert-Houdin, J.E.: King of the Conjurer: Memoirs of Robert-Houdin

Doug

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Bill Mullins » May 4th, 2015, 12:01 pm

For anyone who cares, Dover's website is advertising a 25% off sale for a number of their titles for this weekend (ends today).

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Joe Pecore
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Joe Pecore » May 4th, 2015, 12:33 pm

Here is another listing for Dover Magic Books: https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm ... c+Books%22
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby GColvan » May 4th, 2015, 1:02 pm

This is a great list of the Dover magic books I always recommend them to any one starting in magic regardless of age.

I'm a big fan of the Fulves books.

I also love the idea they are now coming out in Kindle form.

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Mark Collier » July 11th, 2020, 12:50 pm

Richard Hatch wrote:Great list! The one title that I didn't see on it is their 2010 publication 60 Great Magic Posters, book plus DVD, edited by Carol Belanger Grafton. $16.95, ISBN-13: 978-0-486-99103-0, ISBN-10: 0-486-99103-2. 64 pages. 11x8.25 format, plus DVD with a slideshow of the images, plus a link to additional images. I thought this was a great book at a great price, but unfortunately Dover had taken some (all?) of the images from the big Taschen book and one of the image owners could prove it thanks to the autograph of Jane Thurston on one of the Thurston posters (image 58). I don't know if money changed hands over that, but the book was not reprinted (and may have been pulled from production). Copies found in a quick internet search are asking over $500 (more than $1,000 in one case)! Wish I'd held onto more than my personal copy!

I can't find this anywhere. Are there legal/ethical issues with buying and/or selling used copies?

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Bill Mullins » July 11th, 2020, 3:15 pm

I'm not sure there were any copyright issues involved when Dover took the book go out of print -- any magic poster from 1923 or before is in the public domain in the U.S. Probably they figured the amount of money they'd make by continuing to print it was less than the trouble and hassle of dealing with Taschen, even if Taschen didn't have a legal case.

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Ted M » July 11th, 2020, 4:34 pm

The issue was that Dover didn't shoot their own photos of those posters.

They reproduced Taschen's photographs, an allegation that can be proved by the image of #58, which is uniquely autographed and sitting in Mike Caveney's collection, and was photographed specifically for the Taschen book.

Copyright on the posters themselves has expired, but Tashchen's photographs of them remain protected.

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 11th, 2020, 7:36 pm

Oh yes, Dover was forced to take the book off the market. Big stink about that.
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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Bill Mullins » July 12th, 2020, 2:29 am

Ted M wrote:Copyright on the posters themselves has expired, but Tashchen's photographs of them remain protected.


It may not be so cut and dried. There is a case that deals with almost exactly the same issue, and it held that photographs meant to reproduce public domain art don't qualify for copyright protection, because they aren't sufficiently creative enough to qualify as having been "authored".

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Max Maven » July 12th, 2020, 4:36 am

Unfortunately, Dover has a long history of playing loose with images.

Years ago, when they put out a reprint of Will Goldston’s Exclusive Magical Secrets, they chose to put a Houdini poster on the cover. That particular poster was rare, and the image they used was of the poster Jay Marshall owned. This was obvious, because Jay’s poster had a hole in the upper left quadrant, through which you could see the blue color of the backing.

On the book cover, there’s the blue dot. They didn’t bother to touch it up.

Ever has published some wonderful books that I value highly. But they’ve also displayed some questionable ethics over the years.

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Leo Garet » July 12th, 2020, 10:07 am

Bill Mullins wrote:
Ted M wrote:Copyright on the posters themselves has expired, but Tashchen's photographs of them remain protected.


It may not be so cut and dried.


Copyright rarely is. :)

I have memories of Dover falling foul of Edwin Hooper at Supreme Magic regarding Will Dexter's "The Riddle Of Chung Ling Soo".

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby Ted M » July 12th, 2020, 10:18 am

Bill Mullins wrote:
Ted M wrote:Copyright on the posters themselves has expired, but Tashchen's photographs of them remain protected.


It may not be so cut and dried. There is a case that deals with almost exactly the same issue, and it held that photographs meant to reproduce public domain art don't qualify for copyright protection, because they aren't sufficiently creative enough to qualify as having been "authored".


Thanks for pointing to that case. I'm glad to know of it!

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Re: Index of Dover Magic Books

Postby MagicbyAlfred » July 12th, 2020, 3:20 pm

Yes, it seems like the case is well-reasoned. The key element as to whether a work is entitled to copyright protection in the U.S. is "originality." It's hard for someone to convincingly argue that they took a photo of an already-existing work of art created by another, thus producing a likeness identical to the original in all essential respects, and then claim the photo is an original work of art.


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